要點
For more than a decade, China has implemented an
intentional strategy to “assign” Chinese quantum
scientists to leading research institutes around the
world, including in the United States, UK, Germany,
and Switzerland, to “master cutting-edge research”
with the support of Western government funding
after making “unwritten agreements that they must
return to China after their studies are complete” to
support PRC government dual-use quantum research
programs. China’s strategy has succeeded in
building a competitive advantage over the U.S. and
other nations in certain quantum technologies with
military applications.
Pan Jianwei [潘建伟] developed and leads this
strategy. Pan, known as China’s “father of quantum,”
is Head of the Division of Quantum Physics and
Quantum Information at the University of Science and
Technology of China (USTC), which drives China’s
quantum science collaboration with Western research
institutes alongside parallel collaboration with China’s
major state-owned defense companies. Pan is
also a concurrent part-time professor at Germany’s
Heidelberg University.
Western Universities and research labs have been
compromised at the highest levels. Pan and PRC
government agencies have recruited a number of
Western scientists with monetary incentives through
government talent programs. Western quantum
scientists inducted into PRC talent programs include
Matthias Weidemuller, Dean of the Department of
Physics and Astronomy at Heidelberg University,
and Barry Sanders, a theoretical physicist at the
University of Calgary in Canada.
Heidelberg University is arguably the most important foreign partner behind China’s rapid progress in
dual-use quantum technologies. Over the past
decade, Heidelberg University has provided physical equipment to USTC’s quantum lab, trained, and continues to train, a generation of USTC quantum
scientists, and engages in cutting-edge joint research with USTC.
Pan and his team of quantum scientists at USTC directly collaborate with China’s major state-owned defense companies and are behind numerous recent
breakthroughs in quantum military applications. This includes quantum radar to detect stealth aircraft,
quantum magnetometers to detect submarines, and quantum key distribution (QKD) to enable encrypted
communications for the Chinese military, including on Chinese naval vessels in the “far seas.”